Sunday, September 9, 2012

Three Mile Lake

Three Mile Lake is about 25 miles west of Kalamazoo, just off of I-94. It's a mid-sized lake (176 acres) with an unusual shape-- kind of a curving T-- which means you can't see the whole lake from any particular spot. (Michigan's DNR provides a map [pdf].) A shallow channel connects to Little Three Mile Lake.

Threemile Lake came to my attention since it is one of the few lakes with motorboat restrictions. We visited on a hot afternoon and lots of people were cooling off in the lake at the boat launch. Houses lined the eastern shore while the western shore was pretty much undeveloped. There were a few noisy jetskis and waterskiers (since the speed restrictions don't go into effect until evening.) Little Three Mile Lake was quieter, with just a few people sunning on their docks. We saw three Sandhill Cranes among the lilypads on the smaller lake and a couple of Great Blue Herons.

Chuck Stull

I teach economics at Kalamazoo College. My wife is also an economist. We were on sabbatical in Europe for the 2014-15 academic year. (Salamanca, Spain, followed by Oxford, UK.) We were in Uruguay for the 2006-7 academic year.